Timeline of U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan
Key decisions by two administrations determined to end America's longest war
By
Eugene Kiely and
Robert Farley
Posted on August 17, 2021
The Trump administration in February 2020 negotiated a
withdrawal agreement with the Taliban that
excluded the Afghan government, freed 5,000 imprisoned Taliban soldiers and set a date certain of May 1, 2021, for the final withdrawal.
And the Trump administration kept to the pact, reducing U.S. troop levels from about
13,000 to
2,500, even though the Taliban
continued to attack Afghan government forces and
welcomed al-Qaeda terrorists into the Taliban leadership.
Jan. 15 — “Today, U.S. force levels in Afghanistan have reached 2,500,” Miller, the acting defense secretary,
says in a statement. “[T]his drawdown brings U.S. forces in the country to their lowest levels since 2001.”
Afghanistan’s First Vice President Amrullah Saleh
tells the BBC that the Trump administration made too many concessions to the Taliban. “I am telling [the United States] as a friend and as an ally that trusting the Taliban without putting in a verification mechanism is going to be a fatal mistake,” Saleh says, adding that Afghanistan leaders warned the U.S. that “violence will spike” as the 5,000 Taliban prisoners were released. “Violence has spiked,” he added.
Timeline of U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan - FactCheck.org